Ancestral Mathematics: Choosing Liberation for Myself and My Children
Reflecting on the Generations of Choices That Led Me Here and the Power of Breaking Cycles for Those Yet to Come
Welcome! This is my first post after moving to a fully paid model, and I want to take a moment to thank each of you for joining me here. Your support means the world as we walk this path of liberation together, exploring stories, reflections, and actionable insights that empower us to break cycles, heal, and build intentional, intersectional communities. I hope this space becomes a source of both solace and inspiration for you. Let’s dive in.
As I sit in my living room, my kids spread out on the floor, trading and sorting their Halloween candy, I feel the echo of Halloweens past and the ancestral weight of Samhain and All Saints’ Day. This time of year feels sacred—a moment to sit with the threads of my lineage, the countless lives and choices that led to me, here, now. It’s an awe-inspiring thought, this ancestral mathematics, where thousands of lives, stories, struggles, and triumphs culminated in this one moment.
There’s a graphic I came across a few years ago, listing the people required to bring each of us into being. For me to exist today, 4,094 ancestors over 12 generations had to survive wars, oppression, heartbreak, and joy. Imagine it: for hundreds of years, my ancestors (YOUR ancestors) navigated lives filled with love and loss, hunger and hope, resistance and resilience. Each life, a choice; each choice, a step in a path that led to me (that led to YOU)